Work Text:
Come on, dipshit, you’re not listening to me! I said I can help, just tell me what it is!!!!
Robin can practically hear the multiple exclamation points in Dustin’s disembodied and muffled voice - honestly, he’s the only kid she knows who can talk with extra punctuation like that - and across the way Steve rolls his eyes, drives his foot into the dirt in frustration.
“Shit!” he says, and wheels around, eyes wild. “Does anyone know Nancy’s favorite song?”
Eddie stops his fruitless attempts at grabbing Nancy by the ankles and glances over at Steve, unimpressed. “Sorry, what? You dated her, why are you asking us?!” He makes another leap for Nancy’s feet. “Even if I wasn’t - “ Jump. “ - too busy trying to not ever see what happened to Chrissy and Patrick happen again - “ Jump. “ - I wouldn’t know, dude. I’ve only really known Wheeler for, like, a couple days.” Jump. Pant. Grunt of frustration.
Robin, wringing her hands, is about to tell Eddie for the umpteenth time that even if they manage to get Nancy down, it won’t necessarily save her, but Steve turns to her next, desperate fingers running through his even more desperate hair, and says, “Come on. Any ideas? Did she put some - some mix on in the car on the way to the crazy-house? Mention how much she adores Madonna? God, I should have asked her more about herself while we dated, why did I have to be such a selfish douchebag - ”
“Steve,” Robin interrupts him hopelessly. “I really have no idea what - “
But she does, because - she’d sifted through Nancy’s tape deck back at the Wheeler house, and even if that had been some weird alternate dimension Upside-Down version of the past, the tape that had been at the front, clearly the most-loved - maybe it -
“Kim Carnes,” Robin says quickly. “Try ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’”
“Is that it?” Steve demands. “Is that her favorite?”
Robin shrugs, panic mounting in her gut as Nancy’s limbs start to shake all the more violently - the only reason she isn’t dead already is because something - or someone - is distracting Vecna. “I don’t know!” she yells, biting down on her knuckles. “But do you have any better ideas?!”
Steve swallows, hard, and goes, “Henderson, did you get that?”
…im Carnes, we’ve got it, Dustin responds, voice flitting in and out. Sit tight, music coming as soon as we c…
Can’t you make it come faster?! Robin wants to scream, but she knows it won’t do any good. She can’t make herself look at Nancy for more than two seconds at a time, can’t look at her wide-open jaw and pale eyes because what if the next time she looks, that’s when the killing starts? And if Robin has to see that - if Robin has to see that, she’ll just simply -
“Come on!” Eddie yells, fingers just brushing the toe of Nancy’s left shoe, and Robin opens her mouth to tell him to stop but Steve beats her to the punch, grabs a still-scrabbling Eddie from behind and drags him away, cursing under his breath as Eddie struggles, pants, sobs, and falls still.
He doesn’t want to see this, either, Robin knows. None of us do, especially not me, but Eddie’s already seen this happen twice before. How many times can someone watch something like that before - ?
How many times can I watch something like this? How many times can I watch it happen to Nance?
Zero, she knows is the answer. Less than zero. Not ever, but especially not now that Robin’s really gotten to know Wheeler. The year before, when they’d first met, Robin had assumed they’d hate each other; they were too different, Robin was too rowdy, Nancy too stuck-up and prissy. Nancy obviously still had feelings for Steve, and Robin couldn’t outright tell her why she and Steve weren’t together, so Nancy never seemed convinced. But, Robin thinks, by now, she’s settled it. Nancy knows there’s nothing going on between Robin and Steve; Robin knows that Nancy’s not as stuck-up as she had first seemed; and they’re close now, or at least closer, and though it’s only been a few days, Robin wouldn’t give her new-found friendship with Nancy Wheeler for the world -
“Dustin!” Steve screams, snapping Robin back to reality (or as real as things can get in an alternate dimension). Nancy’s finger’s have begun to bend backwards, not strong enough to break, but quick enough to be worrisome. “Hurry the hell up!”
For a brief moment, Robin imagines life without Nancy’s hair and her eyes and her sharp tongue -
She can hear the familiar sounds of a synth beaming sluggishly through the air.
Her hair is Harlow gold, croons Kim, rough and ragged. Her lips, sweet surprise.
Robin forces her eyes upward, gaze moving with the others’. Nancy’s body isn’t coming down, but it’s stopped moving. Gone rigid as a board, almost like it’s listening.
God, Robin pleads to herself, almost completely numb with anticipation. Please tell me I got it right. Please tell me I’m not about to lose my third ever crush because I didn’t know which Kim Carnes song was her favorite.
Across from her, Eddie sucks in a sharp intake of breath. The three of them all inch closer as Nancy’s eyeballs roll forward, back, forward again, as her fingers condense and curl into hard little fists.
They watch as her limbs splay slightly outward, as her eyelids shut - and as she’s dropped unceremoniously from the air just as the song’s second chorus begins to hit.
Steve is quickest, able to catch her with a grunt before she hits the ground, hissing slightly at the pressure on his wound. Eddie whoops, but Robin hesitates - and when she sees Nancy’s eyes open and her lips turn up into a smile at the sight of Steve above her, Robin breathes out the biggest sigh of relief.
“We’re good!” Eddie’s shouting upward. “She’s out of it - keep it on, just in case!”
“You knew,” Nancy’s murmuring to Steve, hand pressed to his cheek. “You knew what song to play.”
Steve stammers, cheeks visibly reddening even in the low light levels of the Upside-Down, and Robin bites hard at the flesh on the inside of her cheek and makes herself look away. Good for Steve, really, she’s happy for him. So happy. He gets the girl of his dreams back and all the credit, and Robin can go stand over in the corner with Eddie and maybe she’ll -
“Actually,” she hears Steve say. “It was - It was all Robin, Nance.”
Robin looks up - Steve’s helped a shaky Nancy to her unsteady feet, and though she’s holding his hand, it’s Robin that she’s staring at (Eddie populates the background, gleefully losing himself in the rest of the music and seemingly oblivious to the scene currently unfolding before him).
“How did you know?” Nancy asks, voice so soft against the blaring synth-pop that Robin almost doesn’t catch it. “How did you know what my favorite song was?”
Robin swallows, dryly, and says, “I - I guess I just had a hunch.”
“A hunch,” Nancy echoes, and despite having been in a supernatural state of catatonia merely moments before, she smiles. “You, Robin Buckley, had a hunch.”
“Well, yeah,” says Robin, confused. “I d - “
And Nancy takes two small strides forward, cups Robin’s face in her hands, and -
Oh.
…Oh! Oh, ok, then.
“Oh my God,” says Robin, moving back with eyes blown wide.
“Oh my God,” says Eddie, glee apparent in his tone.
“What the fuck,” says Steve, sounding slightly distressed. “Nancy?”
Nancy ignores him, smirking slightly, and says, “Robin?”
Robin finds the good sense to close her dropped jaw. “Uh.” Her voice sounds a few octaves higher than usual. “Ok.”
Nancy snorts, shaking her head, and leans her forehead against Robin’s shoulder. “You saved me,” she mutters, her fingers weaving in and out of the ends of Robin’s (regrettably pretty greasy) hair. “You saved my life.”
Robin’s no liar. “I - I mean,” she stutters. “If you want to get technical, then, yeah, I did pretty much save you, but all of us - “
“Don’t be so modest.”
Robin’s face is on fire. “Yeah, no, uh - sure. Sure. Not modest. So totally not mod - “
Look, I can’t see what’s going on, interrupts the distant voice of Dustin Henderson. But I’m guessing it’s Steve and Nancy making out. Steve hides his head in his hands. Nancy seems to hold onto Robin even tighter. And if that’s the case - MOVE!! There’ll be time for sucking face later, we NEED you back through Fred's gate NOW.
Robin coughs a little, rests her palm somewhat tentatively against the nape of Nancy’s soft, pale neck. “You heard the man,” she says quietly. “We gotta go, Wheeler.”
Nancy nods, leans away, still smiling faintly. “I know. Come on.” She takes Robin’s hand, weaves their fingers together, and they follow Eddie (who seems to be the most eager to get back to the real world) out of the trailer park.
“Um,” Steve says, jogging next to them as they venture towards the next-nearest gate. “So, this is, um - this is great. Really, I’m so - I’m happy for you! Just surprised, and, um…”
Robin rolls her eyes. “Thanks, dingus, I’m so glad we have your approval.”
Steve stares. “I mean,” he pants, clutching at his side. “That’s not what I - “
“I know.” Robin shakes her head. “I’m just messing with you.”
“Right,” says Steve. “No, yeah, I - “
“Hey, Harrington!” Eddie shouts from up ahead. “Get up here and give the girlies some space, dumbass!”
Steve flushes, but to his (highly stupid) credit, he obeys.
And then it’s just the two of them, and their grimy, sweaty hands are pressed together palm to palm, and they’re running but Nancy isn’t letting go, and - neither is Robin, for that matter.
“What about Jonathan?” Robin blurts, before she can stop herself.
Nancy grimaces, but squeezes Robin’s hand. “Well. I’ll talk to him.”
“I had no idea,” Robin says, and she’s technically moving very quickly and shouldn’t be wasting more oxygen than she needs to, but - “I really had no idea that you…you know.”
“Liked girls?” Nancy shrugs. “I’ve been trying to hide that part of me for a really long time. And I was successful, for a while, but - “ She smiles, slightly. “Then we went to visit Victor Creel together. And that totally off-the-fly speech you gave to get us inside - I’d never seen anything like it. That’s when I knew.” She glances over. “Did you?”
“Yes,” says Robin. “Mostly. I - I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
“Hmm.” Nancy hums breathily, chest heaving (Robin watches it). “Funny.”
Robin can feel the sweat trickling down into the hollow of her collarbone - she’s about to say something, something probably really dumb and geeky about just how fucking pretty Nancy’s mouth is and how she can’t wait to kiss it again when they’re not wrapped up in all this sci-fi bullshit, but -
“I see it!” Steve yells back to them. “Gate’s up ahead!”
So instead, Robin saves herself and manages, “Talk later?”
She feels their hands squeeze together again - this time, she squeezes back.
“Talk later,” Nancy confirms, and Robin makes a mental note to memorize the entirety of Kim Carnes’ discography as soon as she possibly can.
For her own good.